1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a portable personal computer, particularly a pocket or palm-sized computer, and more particularly an arrangement for connecting an expansion or add-on card to a socket therein.
2. Related Art
Personal computers (PCs) are classified on the basis of size and portability. Personal computers that can be placed on top of a desk but are not very portable are called desktop computers. Portable computers are those personal computers that are light enough to be easily transported. Portable personal computers that are small enough to be set on the lap of a user are called laptop computers; notebook computers are approximately the size of a book. Portable personal computers that can be put in a pocket are called pocket or palm-sized computers. The palm-sized computer includes a wallet PC, PDA (Personal Digital Assistance) and HPC (Hand-held Personal Computer).
The expansion or add-on card is a card on which electronic devices are mounted, and is inserted in a socket formed in such a portable personal computer in order to improve its performance or functionality. Recently, the expansion card widely has been standardized including PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) card and CF card (Compact Flash) such as memory card, fax/modem card, LAN card, etc. However, the expansion card used in the notebook computer is usually incompatible with the palm-sized computer because of the considerable size difference between these computers.
Examples of the contemporary art dealing with arrangements of expansion cards in computers is seen, for example, in the following U.S. Patents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,519,571, to Shieh, entitled Portable Hard Disk Drive Connector With A Parallel (Printer) Port Control Board And A U-Shaped Frame, describes a device having a casing, within which is a control card with a hard disk connector provided at both ends with a rack thereby forming a U-shaped frame, into which a hard disk drive with a PCMCIA is connected. The device itself is not a portable computer, and the arrangement of this device has the hard disk drive extending out from the housing to allow manipulation. Such an arrangement is not suitable for a palm-sized computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,606, to Blaney, entitled Computer Plug-In Module And Interconnection System For Wireless Applications, describes a system for coupling wireless technologies to a computer. A card connector provides a radiofrequency connector positioned above a 68-pin connector. As in other PCMCIA devices, the plug-in module is of a size and arrangement which is not ideal for a palm-sized computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,607, to Dittmer, entitled PCMCIA Card And Associated Support And Circuitry Augmenting Apparatus And Methods, describes a PCMCIA card apparatus in which a PCMCIA card and an attachment section are inserted into a dual PCMCIA card slot. This apparatus, however, does not provide an expansion card arrangement suitable for a palm-sized computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,259, to Ma, entitled Arrangement for connecting An Expansion Card To A Connector Socket In A Personal Computer, describes an expansion card arrangement with a frame disposed on a substrate board of a notebook computer, contact pins within the frame and connected to the motherboard, and also having a connecting socket on the substrate board. This arrangement of a conventional PCMCIA card requires separate access for the connecting socket, and offers no advantage in size reduction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,708,840, to Kikinis et al., entitled Micro Personal Digital Assistant, describes a digital assistant device having an inserted function module which is a Type 2 PCMCIA having dimensions corresponding to PCMCIA standards. This apparatus is of notebook computer size and holds several standard PCMCIA cards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,922, to Shen et al., entitled Portable Computer Having Insertable Module Containing Expansion Units And Connected To A Socket Secured On The Maincircuit Board, describes a multi-unit module of a personal computer, having a personal computer housing and a module casing. Expansion units such as disk drives can be inserted and stacked in the module casing. This apparatus is also of notebook computer size, and does not address the problem of size reduction for a palm-sized computer.